Open 2017: Platform Cooperatives

Has anything more happened on this front? @jamesmead and I are happy to organise something but don't want to tread on any toes.

I don't think anything has happened on this front yet, so please go ahead and organise something! (and then let me know the details so we can let everyone else who is coming to the conference know about it too :-D )

Cheers for volunteering to take this on @chrisroos :-)

If it is possible to have it on the Thursday evening rather than the Friday that would be appreciated (I have to leave straight after it ends on Friday).

Does anyone know how I might get an idea of numbers of people interested in this social?

Ask for people to post here, or perhaps email the list, or trust that if the venue is near the conference and the conference organisers are going to announce it, that this will be enough to result in lots of interested co-operative technologists coming along?

@josefdaviescoates: Are you able to give me a rough idea of the number of people currently signed up for the conference, and maybe the maximum number of attendees? This will give me some idea about the sort of size venues that we might be looking at.

Hi Chris,

Including our many amazing contributors (of which there are currently about 60, many of whom I'd imagine would be interested in this, but many of whom will likely already have plans too) we're already expecting about 300 people. Max will be around 500. But obviously the vast majority wouldn't come to this.

But yeah, large pub room on Thursday night. I'd definitely start with The Amersham Arms - if they don't already have something happening in their function room/ venue space on that night (and I can't see anything on that date on their website http://www.theamershamarms.co.uk/events/ ) that'd be ideal. Plenty of other local pubs too of course.

For those who don't need to rush off as soon as it finished on Friday we'll hopefully have some drinks on us then too... but no one has sponsored them yet... any takers? :P

In cooperation,

Josef.

also, just reading their about page it sounds like the Take Courage gallery upstairs which includes a comfy sofa area would perhaps be suitable too

Awesome. Thanks @josefdaviescoates. I'm going to try the Amersham Arms along with some of the other local venues.

Great, keep us posted! :)

Good shout on the Amersham Arms, @josefdaviescoates! I've spoken to Andy there and it sounds pretty much ideal. They can offer the back room (350 capacity), half the back room (about 150 capacity) and the take courage room (75 capacity). Each area is setup for seating and standing. The bar will be staffed and stocked and he has a late license until 3am. He can supply a DJ for 6 hours for £80 or we can put together a playlist that he'll play for us.

They need a £150 refundable deposit to secure the booking. Is there any reason I shouldn't pay this? I'm sure we can work out the other details once we've got the location sorted.

good work Chris! :)

I can't think of any reason not to pay refundable deposit, but I guess the question is for what space?!?

3am! That sounds ideal ;-)

I don't know about numbers, are some people from the tech co-ops in London who won't be at https://2017.open.coop/ going to be attending? Are we going to let the world know about the event on social media?

I can't think of any reason not to pay refundable deposit, but I guess the question is for what space?!?

Andy from the Amersham Arms said that he'd put us in the back room (or at least half of it) by default but that we can let him know if we need more/less space. I'm waiting to hear back from him so that I can pay the deposit.

Could this social also be the launch party for https://dev.coops.tech/ ?

Could this social also be the launch party for https://dev.coops.tech/ ?

In what way do you imagine it being the launch party, @chriscroome? Some kind of public unveiling, or more of a date to have it ready by so that people can search for CoTech and find something sensible online?

@chrisroos both, having a deadline for when the site at https://dev.coops.tech/ is going to be made available at https://www.coops.tech/ would help us all get it sorted? Also it would be nice to have a celebration to mark the fact that it has been launched?

I expect we would, in fact, make it live a few days before so that there are not any issues on the day itself.

Perhaps @josefdaviescoates would be able to announce the event and put the website on the screen for a moment at the Platform Co-operatives event?

Does that make sense?

That all makes sense to me @chriscroome.

Ooooh... party. Awesome. Is this for the Thursday night?

I'm definitely up for it and I dare say Outlandish would put some cash behind the bar.

Ooooh... party. Awesome. Is this for the Thursday night?

Yup, it certainly is.

I'm definitely up for it and I dare say Outlandish would put some cash behind the bar.

I'm wondering whether we can try using Cobudget to organise collectively contributing to a bar tab. I'll suggest this in the Cobudget working group in Slack.

I've spoken to Andy again and have arranged to meet him on Wednesday to pay the deposit. Let me know if there's anything in particular anyone wants to know about the venue and I'll be sure to check it out.

One slight spanner in the works is that I think we're also planning on having our Speakers Dinner on Thursday night too, and I think at least some of you have put yourselves down for that...

actually, I think at least 10 people who've said they want to join speakers dinner are folks who are part of this Co-op Tech network too... but I'd guess you'd rather join these drinks?!? @harryrobbins @edrussell @bevangelist @constance @sionwhellens @dougbelshaw @laurahilliger @timdavies1 @jackthorp & Bryan from We Are Open Co-op too...

So even more reason to combine the two somehow, or for us to have speakers dinner on Fri (despite the fact some may be heading off home straight after and so wont be able to make it)...

Thoughts anyone? Thanks!

Perhaps we should combine the two? Or not?

A spanner indeed, @josefdaviescoates :-)

I wonder whether it'll help us make a decision if we define what this CoTech social is? I'm not really sure what other people are thinking so, in order to start with something, how about we make this a CoTech sponsored social that's open to anyone at the conference plus anyone in the CoTech network not able to make it to the conference?

If we describe it like that then it sounds as though it could work well for the Friday evening drinks that Josef mentioned earlier. An advantage of this is that it resolves the conflict with the speakers dinner. Disadvantages are that we might have to find another venue and that a number of people (including Harry and Chris from this thread) won't be able to attend.

@josefdaviescoates: If we stick with the plan of hosting the social on Thursday, how feasible do you think it is to combine it with the speakers dinner somehow? I presume at the very least, the attendees of the speakers dinner could join the social a bit later.

As a reminder I'm currently planning to pay the deposit for the venue tomorrow. I'm sure we can delay a few days but I don't want to keep them hanging on too long.

Have you thought about when these drinks might start? I'm guessing immediately after the conference ends on Thurs? (currently 17:45)

If so, I think our current thinking is to tell people about these drinks/ launch/ whatever they are and then walk to somewhere local around 8pm for the speaker dinner (or maybe even have the speaker dinner upstairs in the Take Courage room - could you ask if you visiting if that'd seat 60 people for sit down dinner?)

Thanks!

Josef.

Have you thought about when these drinks might start? I'm guessing immediately after the conference ends on Thurs? (currently 17:45)

Yeah, I reckon we'll book it from 6pm.

If so, I think our current thinking is to tell people about these drinks/ launch/ whatever they are and then walk to somewhere local around 8pm for the speaker dinner

This makes it sounds as though I can safely pay the deposit. Does that sound OK to you @josefdaviescoates?

(or maybe even have the speaker dinner upstairs in the Take Courage room - could you ask if you visiting if that'd seat 60 people for sit down dinner?)

Andy (Amersham Arms) thinks this'll be fine. I'm waiting for him to put me in touch with the person that does their catering so I'll let you know as soon as I hear so that you can decide whether it looks suitable.

Excellent, thanks Chris.

I'd say go ahead and put that deposit down (for the drinks) if you've not already done so :)

Hey @josefdaviescoates. I spoke to the Amersham about catering for 60 people upstairs. They suggested either using https://caribbeanstreetfoods.wordpress.com or sourcing your own caterers - they don't prepare food themselves. I'm waiting on confirmation as to whether you'd be able to have 60 people seated in there, or whether it's better suited to a combination of some seating and some standing.

I went and looked at the room upstairs at the Amersham Arms when I was down in New Cross last week and I think they are completely mad to think we could get 60 people in there for a sit down dinner (and it's a bit grotty too).

Our speakers dinner will now almost certainly be at The Rose down the road, probably from around 8pm.

I visited the Amersham Arms on Friday and paid the deposit so we're all set for the evening of Thurs 16th Feb.

I've created a wiki page for this CoTech Social.

Turns out we were also thinking of a drinks reception on Thurs too! And so seems likely we should join forces and have one big drink (which probably means booking the whole back room of Amersham Arms if you've haven't done so already?) Anyways, I've just emailed you and my colleague Thomas Heiser so you can work it all out together :) cheers!

Thanks @josefdaviescoates. Combining forces sounds good to me.

Does anyone have any objections to us making this a combined CoTech/Open 2017 social event? FWIW, I'd already been thinking about this as a CoTech organised/sponsored event that was open to anyone in the network plus anyone at the conference.

In the interests of making progress, I'm going to take silence as implied agreement with the plan of combining the events. I hope that's OK!

@chrisroos - yes - very much think combined event is the best thing to aim for

Any idea how many beers 350 people drink in a night?

If we filled it to capacity and everyone drank 10 beers at £5 each it would be £17,500 - so hopefully
* everyone drinks less than me
* the beers are cheap at the Amersham Arms.

I think we (The Open Co-op, via sponsors) would be putting about £1500 behind the bar. If we combine that with whatever CoTech comes up with we can just say "there is £x000 behind the bar thanks to x x and x, after that is gone, buy your own drinks" or somesuch, no? :)

just fyi think we were aiming for buying roughly 2 drinks each for everyone... so perhaps we up that to 3 or 4 or 5 (if CoTech feeling generous!) drinks each or something?

@chrisroos @harryrobbins OK so I'm basically assuming the joint drinks is a goer, yes?

We're about to email speakers about booking their spot at the speaker dinner from 7.30pm and would ideally like to include details about these drinks/ social too so people are aware it's happening when they decide whether or not to book into the speaker dinner. I tired so I hope that makes sense?

Anyways, be great to have a nice bit of blurb about/ invitation from CoTech to include in the email if you're able to whack something together quickly...

I've not heard any objections so I say that we go for the joint event.

I should be able to write something at lunchtime today @josefdaviescoates but won't mind if you need to send the email about the speakers' dinner before then.

How about something like this @josefdaviescoates:

CoTech is a network of UK cooperatives working with technology who've come together to offer an ethical alternative to the big traditional tech businesses. Read more about us on our wiki at https://wiki.coops.tech/.

@harryrobbins / everyone: Feel free to amend this but I figured it was useful to have something in the email!

Is Amersham Arms now confirmed? I'm assuming also that given joint drinks we're going to go for the whole of the back room?

Cheers,

Josef.

Hi All, just a bit confused. Am I right in understanding that we're getting together at 6pm at the Amersham Arms on Thursday 16th February. The speakers will join us at the beginning and then slope off down to the Rose for their dinner at 7.30pm. Is this correct?

The drinks will effectively sponsored/hosted by Co-Tech but open to anyone attending Open 2017. Co-Tech will be looking for contributions from its members. Do we have this right?

Am I right in understanding that we're getting together at 6pm at the Amersham Arms on Thursday 16th February. The speakers will join us at the beginning and then slope off down to the Rose for their dinner at 7.30pm. Is this correct?

Yes, for those speakers who want to join the Speaker Dinner at The Rose, that is correct.

However, be good @chrisroos if we could advertise these drinks as starting at (and reserve Amersham Arms from at least) 5.35pm i.e. immediately after the last session at the conference that day.

Also @chrisroos @harryrobbins any update on Cobudgeting for this? How much do we think we'll have behind the bar?

Thanks!

However, be good @chrisroos if we could advertise these drinks as starting at (and reserve Amersham Arms from at least) 5.35pm i.e. immediately after the last session at the conference that day.

I'll advertise on the CoTech mailing list today and will let Andy know that we'll be there from 5:35.

Also @chrisroos @harryrobbins any update on Cobudgeting for this? How much do we think we'll have behind the bar?

We've currently got £350 but I'll chase this up today too.

Great, thanks.

If you/ someone (@chriscroome ?) could provide a large CoTech logo for use here https://2017.open.coop/sessions/networking-drinks/ that'd be good too :)

Did you search for "logos" on the wiki? ;-p

• https://wiki.coops.tech/wiki/Logos

Is that logo intended to be used on its own, or in conjunction with the CoTech wording?

@chrisroos I don't know.

No, I didn't, but while I was out earlier I thought I should've done that and that you'd probably say that!

@chrisroos personally I think it needs the wording too really otherwise it doesn't tell you who it is.

@chrisroos personally I think it needs the wording too really otherwise it doesn't tell you who it is.

I agree but design/branding really isn't my domain.

@chriscroome / anyone - Do you know who might be able to create a large version of our logo and name (i.e. as it appears at the top left of dev.coops.tech)? I could probably do it but it would take me an awful lot longer than someone that actually knows what they're doing :-)

@chrisroos get a large logo from the wiki and use HTML for the text? I added an (untested) example to the wiki page.

Yup. The Amersham Arms is confirmed. I'll let Andy from the pub know that we've combined the events and that we can expect a larger number of people!

Great, thanks Chris. I think Tom and Oli are also in New Cross today and might well be be popping into Amershams Arms as I type...

Something like this but bigger is what we're after, to include on https://2017.open.coop/sessions/networking-drinks/

How is this? https://wiki.coops.tech/wiki/File:CoTech_Logo.png

Easy D

@josefdaviescoates when you update the webpage to include the logo you might also want to change the end time? Currently it is listed as 7:30pm!

Yes, that is because in terms of Open 2017 involvement that is when it ends as the organisers and most speakers will then be heading off to the speakers dinner down the road at The Rose - of course that doesn't mean anyone else has to go then and I'd suggest advertising to CoTech networks as ending later. I'll leave it as 7.30pm but put a note on the page saying that it will likely actually go on much later...

Have updated https://2017.open.coop/sessions/networking-drinks/